Saginaw County native publishes book featuring father's love letters sent home during WWII

View full sizecourtesy Teresa IrishDuring their Oct. 8, 2011 wedding, Bradley Foster and Teresa Irish present a copy of \"A Thousand Letters Home\" to her mother, Elaine Irish. The book features love letters written between Elaine Irish and her yet-to-be-husband, Aarol W. "Bud" Irish, while he was stationed in Europe during World War II.

Little did he know those letters — and the budding romance they documented — one day would inspire both a book and a modern-day love story for the daughter the couple had yet to bear.

That daughter, Teresa K. Irish, is 49 now. More than five years ago — one month after the death of her father — the Northville woman first opened an Army trunk containing her father’s love letters, penned while the Hemlock native was training in the U.S. and fighting overseas during World War II from November 1942 to December 1945.

Irish was inspired by the nearly 10,000 pages of correspondence, as detailed in a November 2007 Saginaw News report.

The letters painted the portrait of her parents’ blossoming love and the ray of hope it offered a young Army corporal who witnessed close friends die next to him while battling Nazi forces, Teresa Irish said.

Now that story is available for everyone to read.

Irish this week began mailing copies of her self-published book documenting the correspondence, “A Thousand Letters Home,” to readers as near as South Carolina and as far away as Afghanistan.

“I don’t know if I could say it’s a love story, a war story or a story of faith,” Irish said.

The 565-page book features 320 of her father’s letters along with eight letters sent back by her mother, Elaine Irish, now 89 and living in Saginaw Township.

View full sizeMichael Hollenbeck | The Saginaw News filesA photo of WWII veteran Aarol W. "Bud" Irish, who died in 2005, stands next to a box of letters he wrote home during his time in the Army. Daughter Teresa Irish of Northville discovered the trunk full of letters he sent to his future wife, Elaine Irish, and published a book about the letters. Other memorabilia from World War II was also saved.

Six chapters also describe the corporal’s life after war, including his activism for cancer awareness, along with historical accounts that give further context to the letters, Irish said.

There were times over the past five years when Irish wondered if and when she would finish the project, but she said help from family and friends brought the labor of love into book format. Her sisters and mother helped her type up some of the letters.

Later, a complete stranger’s interest in the story would change her life.

On June 9, 2009, Irish met Bradley J. Foster, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, on an airplane. He was on his flying back to the Middle East while Irish, traveling for business, was browsing the letters. The reading material caught Foster’s attention and became the reason for their first conversation.

Two years later, Foster and Irish married.

Foster helped Irish edit “A Thousand Letters Home” and provided context for some of its content in the book’s glossary, she said.

Their courtship, coincidentally, took place largely in the same country — Germany — where Irish’s father wrote some of his letters, she said. Foster was stationed in Heidelberg, where Irish visited him, for a year after his duty in the Middle East.

Their wedding ceremony in October provided Irish an opportunity to unveil “A Thousand Letters Home” to her family.

“She’s very proud of my sisters and I for finishing it,” Irish said of her mother’s reaction to the book. “Not every person would be as wonderful as her and let these (letters) be published.”

View full size"A Thousand Letters Home" now is available in soft cover and hard cover.

This week, Irish sent out the first 60 copies of the book to those who placed advance orders. Readers interested can buy “A Thousand Letters Home” in hardcover for $30 or softcover for $20 at http://www.athousandlettershome.com/

Irish will participate in a lecture about her book during a noon gathering Friday at the Castle Museum of Saginaw County History, 500 Federal in Saginaw.

She said she hopes the book’s exposure soon will lead to a publisher willing to distribute it.

Writing the book proved a bittersweet experience for Irish, she said — sweet for the insight it provided about a younger version of her father; bitter because she regretted having discovered the story after his death.

“I have many blessings in my life, but I’m sad to say, I wish I had asked more questions about his war experiences,” she said. “He was very emotional on anniversaries of certain events.

“If I could see him today, I would tell him, ‘I’m so sorry; I didn’t understand,’ ” she said. “I wish I could have put this book in his hands.”

Irish said she hopes the book inspires readers to reach out to war veterans to hear their stories. Since reading the letters, she makes a point to thank every veteran she meets for his or her military service.

“I hope young people take the time to read this and understand,” she said.

The entire experience — from reading the letters, to meeting her husband, to finally publishing the work — also has opened up a new line of communication with her father, she said.

“I brought my dad back into my life,” Irish said. “I got to meet my dad at the age of 20 years old. He was so romantic, and his optimism so huge and his faith was so strong.

“By time this book was finished, I began to miss that young fella as much as I missed my dad.”